We admire them; think highly of them; perhaps even [Shhh] envy them. We call them “genius” and they can be found in just about any field: painting, music, mathematics, architecture, physics, chemistry, cooking and the list goes on. Some of them can even invent an entirely new field that did not exist beforehand.
We tend to identify the word “Genius” with an individual, associating specific individuals with specific capabilities.
In interviews however, many “Genius” often disagree with such association, claiming that the knowledge did not emanate from them but rather through them – given to them.
The rest of humanity hears, smiles, and may think that not only are they a Genius, but meek as well. Many find it difficult to comprehend that something which ends up as a reality on the physical plane – ushered by a flesh and blood human – can originate in a realm outside of our perception capacity.
Further, many people don’t give it much thought when “a genius” has a one-off magic up their sleeve, never to be followed by anything else of such magnitude of creativity. But many such people have dry spells, amazing artists suffer writer’s block and whatever other terms may be used to essentially describe an inability to follow suite with a previous achievement of great significance.
I certainly don’t call myself a genius nor did anyone ever described me as such, but I know that there are times – I may call them ‘moments of magic’ – where out of the blue something magical and amazing will drop in my lap. Not necessarily according to other people’s opinion, but at least according to my own. Perhaps it would come in the form of music, perhaps in the form of an abstract idea, perhaps a psychic flash or something else. I would be the first one to be amazed. And to me this serves as an indication that I am not the one responsible for its creation, or even its discovery.
To me genius is not a person. It is a state of harmony, a resonance between a person and a different realm of existence, where all knowledge exists – that which has been already found, that which is not yet found, and that which has been found and also forgotten. Which means that it is a capacity that’s available to anyone. This in itself does not mean that every single person experiences such phenomena, and yet the potential exists.
It’s also interesting to note that when asked for the specific circumstances under which such a work-of-genius has come into existence, its originators often confess that it wasn’t a moment of work and focus, but rather a moment of frustration, disappointment and of reaching a dead-end. A moment where there was no active thought or even an attempt at thinking. This I feel, provides an important clue as to the “how” – the technique of stumbling upon an Eureka.
Stopping.
That’s exactly what Albert Einstein did when the numbers did not lead anywhere meaningful; he picked up his violin and allowed his mind to stop juggling numbers. And just like Einstein had his own unique way of stopping, you and I have our own ways: perhaps taking a walk, or cooking, or reading a book, or doing some yard-work. Anything that takes our minds off task.
I believe that good health is also a part of this. After all, it would be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, for someone living with chronic pain or depression, to be in tune with something beyond themselves. I say this because to me, being in tune with something beyond myself, suggests expansion, and at times when our health suffers, we withdraw, disengage, fade and contract, that is – the exact opposite.
Good health, the ability to let go and faith in something greater than the self, opens the doorway to a mystical and magical dimension where the unimaginable happens and the genius appears.